Promoting Tillamook in the Media

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Two days ago I posted about Tillamook’s use of Facebook and discussed several ways they are being effective on their FB page with their customers (which undoubtedly will lead to an increase in sales. Who doesn’t want to buy from a company that cares about them?) While writing the entry for that day I posted on Tillamook’s FB page and received feedback almost immediately. Well one thing led to another and Tillamook discovered how passionate I was about their company and their products (I told several stories of convincing friends and strangers to try their cheese and/or ice-cream). After a few friendly conversations they asked me to be their “Fan of the Month” for the month of November. Now, I’ve posted earlier about Tillamook’s “Fan of the Month” they do each month on their blog and talked a little about how that would influence the lucky customer who became said fan and also how that kind of interaction with their fans would help portray Tillamook as a friendly and open company who cared about and loved their customers. I was just giving an educated guess, but after experiencing it for myself, I’ve been more converted to Tillamook than ever before. In addition, I tell everyone I know about it (my being chosen as “fan of the Month”) and often that leads to a conversation about Tillamook’s products. Such word-of-mouth has been a huge success for several companies in history and no doubt has helped and will help Tillamook. Now at least 10 more people know about Tillamook that likely wouldn’t have before if Tillamook hadn’t been so interactive with one of their customers; now they also have a more converted customer. No doubt I will continue to tell people of this experience as I share Tillamook through-out my life.

Take a look at Tillamook’s “Fan of the Month” for the month of November by clicking on the picture for this entry above

I attended a seminar today in place of class (I actually have no idea what to call it). A lady from the University of Florida gave a presentation on content analysis specifically regarding Facebook. She mentioned 6 things that companies with Facebook can do to build a relationship with their customers; Openness, access, networking, assurance, task sharing, and another one that slips my mind. Let’s describe these and see whether or not Tillamook’s Facebook page uses these.

Openness, Openness refers to how open the company is on Facebook. To find this out you can look at the info tab. How open are they about who they are, what they do, what they have, and their purpose if there is one. Check out Tillamook’s info tab on their Facebook page and see:

Access. How accessible is Tillamook? Do they provide contact information? an address? Under the same info tab on their FB (Facebook) page they offer where they are located, they also provide a link to their main web page which contains all their contact info for questions concerns and so forth. In addition they are constantly inviting people to comment on what they are posting. I think that Tillamook is very accessible.

Networking. This refers to whether or no they branch out to other companies or products that their customers may also be interested in. Take a look under their info tab as well and see how many different companies, products and events not connected to Tillamook that they’ve “liked”. Here they are for quick reference:

Oh hold that thought as we move on to Assurance. The presenter represented Assurance in one way as to whether the company would respond to a wall post made by somebody on the FB Wall. As I was writing this I made a post on the Tillamook FB wall and within 13 minutes I got a response. I got the proof right here:

I’ll tell you what, I felt quite good to see that and so quickly too. I was impressed and even though I am already a devoted customer, I am even more devoted now.

The last one that I can remember from the presentation was Task Sharing. This was described as to whether they ask for comments, or do polls. Tillamook does both.

Tillamook has 183,889 likes, and for such a small company that is impressive. I think that they do an amazing Facebook page, and by analyzing their content (which is what the presentation was about) anyone would agree. I’d bet my cheese on it.

Tillamook has taken unique approaches to advertising their cheese and other products, from clever commercials showing how much other products love Tillamook Cheese and kids and families sharing their love for Tillamook Ice-cream in testimonial style commercials, to driving around a just-barely-large-enough-for-one VW bus (that is very recognizable) across the country and setting up stations with cheese samples, games with prizes, and coupons for the various products Tillamook sells. But according to an article by Science Daily, a food corporation can enhance their selling power by appealing to all of the human senses when advertising instead of just one or two. For example, if Tillamook were to include in their commercials, the experience of the texture, smell, sight, and sound of unwrapping, opening, or peeling back the lid of a Tillamook product such as the yogurt cups, the cheese wrappers, or popping off the lid to a tub of Ice-cream and watching the over-filled contents burst over the edges, a consumer is more likely to try a product in order to satisfy their teased senses. Such tactics have been used by food companies you may be familiar with; Pringles uses the pop of their chip cans in their advertising to give consumers the experience of that fresh pop of the can and the smell being released as a result. From my own experience with that commercial, I could almost smell the chips when the can was popped. They also use the crunch of the chip and contrast the fact that their chips leave no grease on your fingers like other brands of chips might. York Peppermint Patty has also recently shown commercials where opening and biting into one of their candies gives a sensational experience of a cool chill resulting in goose-bumps, dilating eyes, and hair standing up on the skin. For those interested in experiencing such a sensation on a hot summers day, such a commercial can be quite convincing.

Why is appealing to all of the sense a more powerful and lasting approach on consumers? According to the article it is “Because taste is generated from multiple senses (smell, texture, sight, and sound), [so] ads mentioning these senses will have a significant impact on taste over ads mentioning taste alone[.]”

As I’ve watched Tillamook’s commercials and seen their ads on their website or Facebook, I’ve noticed that such an approach has not been used. Take a look at some of the commercials I’ve posted or head on over to their website and judge for yourself, but I’ve noticed that only a few sense are used, and what the article says stands out to me now. For example, Tillamook’s commercials advertising their cheese, shows the cheese not being eaten, unwrapped or even used! It stays in one spot and the only sense appealed to is sight. The Ice-cream commercials do a better job in that allowing consumers to share their experiences with Tillamook Ice-cream can open up the use of more senses. Consumers can talk about how it felt on their tongues (the texture), or describe how every time they open up a tub, the Ice-cream is over packed and starts to spill over the edge. They may also describe the smell of the berries (in some flavors) or the chocolate (in others). I believe those commercials get me more excited about Tillamook ice-cream than their commercials about their cheese get me excited about their cheese.

What do you think?

Check out the article found on the link below to read more about the study.

The New York Times recently did an article on Tillamook’s new TV Ad campaign to promote their award winning medium cheddar cheese. Check out the article by clicking on the link above. What do you think of their commercials and advertising strategies thus far? (If you are unfamiliar with these check out the previous posts to see commercials and other ways Tillamook is promoting itself in the media) Are these, or would these use of the media be effective towards you or those you know? Have you been exposed to any of Tillamook’s marketing efforts recently and how well did they stick or grab your interest?

I am bias toward their products and so I am curious of Tillamook’s effectiveness toward those originally unfamiliar with them.

I really like this advertising approach Tillamook is taking by doing a blog of their own entitled “The Loaf Life” blog (Tillamook likes to interchangeably use the word Loaf for Love). This blog is unique in that each month they do a “fan of the month” post. The most recent post covered a fan from St. George Utah who wrote a humorous limerick about Tillamook cheese and Ice-cream. I think this use of media for advertising is quite effective. Why? By getting their fans involved and participating they not only increase the love and loyalty they receive from their fans (which can lead to more frequent word-of mouth advertising to friends and community), but they also are able to connect in a nonthreatening way to new-comers showing how customer oriented their company is. I like when companies include their fans, I think that including your fans and allowing yourself to be vulnerable allows fans and customers to trust what you do which can trickle into your product as well.

Hey y’all. I wanted to share this link with you about Tillamook Ice-cream. Along with a campaign to advertise their absolutely, down-right, amazing cheese, they are also advertizing their even more, down-right, absolutely amazing ice cream! In this post I will include one of their more recent commercials pulled from YouTube. I watched this side by side with a few of their cheese commercials and found that the commercial was done a bit differently form that of the cheese-mercials. They had a testimonial type format with a strong family-like appeal which gave me a feel-good feeling through out the commercial. I especially like the kid’s compliments; they were cute and caught my attention. I couldn’t resist not feeling the desire to try some of Tillamook’s ice-cream afterward, and I believe you will feel the same way. I think that this was a very effective advertisement that should yield higher sales in the future, but more importantly higher satisfied taste buds with those customers.

InsideFacebook.com (IF) did an article recently on covering two of the best Facebook Campaigns over the week. And Tillamook Cheese made the cut! They created a new app called Tillamook Chees’wich App which lets you upload a picture of yourself and burn it on an image of a grilled cheese sandwich. I browsed through a few batches of pictures users had posted and found the App did an impressive job. IF looked at the effectiveness of the campaign and found that the Tillamook page “showed a steady growth” (see link) during the campaign which is still going on. Curious – and a tad obsessed – I checked out the App on their Facebook page, but I found that Tillamook wanted permission to use a little more personal information from my Facebook than I wanted to allow so I exited the App, but for those of you out there who want to check it out and are more comfortable on the planes of Facebook, go to their Facebook page (Tillamook Cheese) and add the App.

Check out the article by clicking on the image above… and try some of their world famous medium cheddar cheese while you’re at it. 🙂

Take a look at some of the latest Tillamook TV Ads as part of their new TV campaign to celebrate their cheese winning “The World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese” in 2010 at the World Champion Cheese Contest.

This was the first Tillamook commercial I saw on TV, and when I first saw the commercial I didn’t know what to think of it. At first I was so excited to see a product I am so passionate about finally on TV, but at the same time the commercial wasn’t that interesting to me and I was a bit disappointed at their presentation of a product that I love so much and which tastes so outstanding. Luckily, this commercial I saw was the first of its kind for Tillamook and so I gave the commercial some slack as the Ginny pig of their new TV campaign to promote the cheese that had just won “The World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese”. Afterwards, though, I thought that their commercials improved – either that or my bias for the cheese brain-washed me into liking their commercials. My favorite commercial so far in their campaign is “Potatoes love Tillamook”

I like the way these commercials were put together. I think that they are creative and unique and by being creative and unique are able to catch the attention of their audience where ever they may be. I think that the commercials are also consistent with the image the company portrays over the other media through which they advertise (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tillamook.com). That, I believe is important, so that there is no confusion as to what kind of company Tillamook is; a farmer owned, all natural, family friendly company with a unique culture of its own (no pun intended), in love with the products they make and serious about being the best out there. It was this uniqueness that drew me to the cheese when I first became a fan and has kept me hooked since.

Does anyone have some new commercial ideas we can send Tillamook’s way?

To find out more about Tillamook and their amazing dairy products visit Tillamook.com. You can also find them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter. Discover the taste of Tillamook at WinCo, Macey’s or A fresh Markets, you and your taste buds will not be disappointed!